Tourism grew at three times the rate of the total Australian economy in the 2014-15 financial year, according to official statistics just released.

Tourism Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 5.3% over the period, contributing a total of AUD 47.5 billion or 3% of GDP.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for the period was released on Friday. The TSA is recognised internationally as the benchmark for estimating the economic contribution of tourism in an economy. The Australian TSA is published each year, and provides measures of tourism gross domestic product (GDP), tourism gross value added (GVA), tourism trade, and employment in tourism.

Key findings for 2014-15 include:

Direct tourism GDP increased 5.3% (or AUD 2.4 billion) to AUD 47.5 billion. Over the same period, the Australian economy grew at a slower rate (up 1.6%). Tourism’s share of total GDP increased strongly to 3%.

Direct tourism employment increased 6.3% (or 34,300 jobs) to 580,800. At the same time, total employment in Australia increased 1.8%. This resulted in tourism’s share of total employment increasing to 5%.

More than half (54%) of persons employed in tourism were female. The number of females working in tourism increased 6.1% to 313,700. The number of males employed in tourism increased by 6.5% to 267,100.